Build Your Character (at Least for a Day)

SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review. I’m Sarah Green Carmichael. This week, we’re talking about a new movement, called Character Day, with that movement’s founder, Tiffany Shlain. Tiffany is an Emmy nominated filmmaker and founder of The Webby Awards. She runs a film studio and lab called The Moxie Institute, and a nonprofit, called Let It Ripple, Mobile Films for Global Change. And it’s out of this effort that Character Day has grown.

Tiffany, thank you so much for talking with us today.

TIFFANY SHLAIN: Thank you for having me.

SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: So Tiffany, I thought we could just start with a brief description of what Character Day is. What’s the description of the movement?

TIFFANY SHLAIN: Well, we made a film last year called The Science of Character, which looked at the neuroscience and social science of character development. And so many people were having this conversation in silos. And we thought, wouldn’t it be powerful if we had a global day that premiered the film, and we offered the film for free and provided all these resources for people to delve deeper.

So that happened last year. And just to give you a sense, we are expecting 250 screenings maybe around the world, and it was over 1,500. And we thought, ugh. People are really hungry for this, so we really expanded it this year.

We’ll be premiering two new films, and we have 6,100 screenings in 41 countries planned. So they’ll have the option of premiering two new films we’ve made, or The Science of Character, and we have free discussion kits, and a global resource hub of all the resources around character development. So that is Character Day, and this is all for free. It’s all generously underwritten, and so anyone can participate from anywhere, and it’s going to be a really amazing day.

SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: So it’s interesting to me that as students are going back to school, many of them will be participating. But for me, the principles that play here are really important for all of us, and especially for leaders. And I’m someone who always gets that– back to school, time to roll up your sleeves and sharpen your pencils feeling in the fall.

TIFFANY SHLAIN: Yeah.

SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: It’s just take a good moment to pause and take stock. So tell me a little bit about how you hope adults interact with this, as well.

TIFFANY SHLAIN: Yeah. I really feel like I’m a lifelong learner, and I know people that go to your website are, as well. So I’m always thinking about ways to be a better leader, director, or engage with my community, all of those things. So something we have in The Science of Character is this periodic table of character strength. And it lists out 24 characters strengths based on this wonderful work by Marty Seligman and Ericsson, two psychologists, about qualities that we all have, and ways that we can strengthen them.

So I think anyone who is in a position where they want to be the best leader in whatever they do is going to gain from this. And people that participated in Character Day last year and this year, it’s not just schools. It’s schools and a lot of just organizations and nonprofits. So it really is open to students of life, which I hope we all are continuing. And actually, one of the films we’re premiering called The Adaptable Mind, and it’s all about what are the skills in life in the 21st century that we need to focus on to flourish? So I think that also could apply to anyone.

So I’m really interested in these ideas, and it feel like it’s in the zeigeist. I read a lot about people thinking about ways to either improve who they are, how they are, or just to gain balance in this world that’s happening so quickly all the time with all this technology.

SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: Well, and that’s actually something that you have talked a lot about, and written a lot about, and made films about before too is how you’ve dealt with that onslaught of technology. And maybe before we go further into character and the science of character, you could just tell us a little bit about what you do to try to find a moment of stillness in this world.

TIFFANY SHLAIN: My family and I– I’m married, and we have two kids. And about five years ago, we decided to unplug from– turn off all screens one day a week that we call our technology shabbats. And we’re Jewish, but we’re not religious. But we have done this every week for five years, and it’s changed our lives.

So I knew that I needed to do something to create a sense of balance, and also, just to be more present. I’m sure most people would agree listening to this, there’s just so many things distracting us and pulling us off into different directions, and influencing our mood, and all of these things, with all these notifications, and beats, and tweets, and all this stuff. So that’s been very profound.

And it keeps getting more profound. The repetition of it has been very interesting to me, the longer I’ve done it. And since that, since we’ve been doing it, I made a film about the neuroscience of daydreaming.

And I daydream a lot. I’m these days, off of technology, and I’m really interested in what’s happening in our minds when we’re stimulated, which of course, there’s amazing things that all these new sources of information and connection can do, but all the ways– when is it not good? And when should we take a break from that?

So a lot of my work, of course, the good, the bad, and the potential of technology. And then I made it– a whole feature documentary called Connected about six years ago. And I founded The Webby Awards.

So I’m in the technology. I’m not like, oh, this is all bad. This is a lot of wonderful. There’s a lot we need to be talking about, and how can we shape the potential of all of these tools that we’ve built that are just extensions of us?

Yeah. Well, and it sounds like with Character Day, part of the purpose of having a day is that you create a space to think about some of these inner strengths and values that we don’t think about that often.

TIFFANY SHLAIN: That’s a beautiful way to put it. Yes, we are also busy. Let’s put a protected space of this day and say, everyone around the world is going to talk about character, and what it means, and the importance of character.

And so I think that that is the goal. I think there’s a lot of power when people all over the world focus on something together, even if they’re not in the same space. And I should also say that all of these screenings are going to be unified by a global Google Hangout, and we have wonderful thinkers on character from many different perspectives– from Harvard, from PBS, from NBC, from a lot of scholars from every continent. And it’ll be a really interesting conversation.

SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: That’s very cool. So I’m wondering, as you’re talking about character, character itself is a throwback term, almost, in a way. There’s something delightfully old fashioned about it.

But when you talk about the science of character, and the adaptable mind, and a lot of this neuroscience, and stuff that people across different religions, and philosophies, and time periods have all settled on, what are some of those strengths that really, we need to focus on more?

TIFFANY SHLAIN: I’m glad you said that it’s a delightful word, because it’s an interesting word, because it is a throwback. It’s hard to find a word that encompasses everything that we’re talking about. But character is one of these words that it does seem to be a very solid framework to talk about it.

So some of the strengths, the founders of the positive psychology movement, that they broke them down. And they looked throughout cultures and history and found $24 common character strengths that lead to a happy, successful, and purposeful life. And I should say that there are seven virtues that each of these strengths roll into it.

So the virtues are things like wisdom, courage, justice, humanity, and then the strength themselves are things like humility, gratitude, honesty, social intelligence, self-control, humor. And like I said on our site, we have this cool poster that we have made for people for free that they can put up and think about which one do I want to focus on this month?

SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: Mm.

TIFFANY SHLAIN: And we found, just like scientists have done throughout history, when you organize them– these are all words that I think we use a lot. But to see them in a chart, and that which strengths actually roll into a virtue, it’s very satisfying. And it helps you break it down, identify it, and develop it.

So on our resources hub– we have this amazing resource hub that breaks down all of the character strengths. So let’s say you wanted to work on gratitude or humility, we provide a list of films, books, apps, and games that can help you develop that strength. And then we also have a whole bunch of different lesson plans for educators.

So if you are an educator or just if you’re a student of life, if you wanted to work on that. And then we also, one of the other films that we’re making that we’re premiering on Character Day is called The Making of a Mensch. So this looks at the ideas of the science of character through a Jewish lens. So we’re giving you a lot of different portals into these ideas.

And really, these are short films. I should also say they’re all about 8 to 11 minutes. And we really want the films to trigger your own delving deeper into these ideas through all these materials we’re offering.

SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: So it makes sense to me in a way that the focus here would be primarily on children, because their minds are plastic. All parents want to develop their kid’s character. With adults though, it seems like that’s something that most of us are sort of– we think that our strengths and weaknesses are somewhat fixed. Tell me a little bit about that challenge.

TIFFANY SHLAIN: I’ve never felt like– I’m always trying to learn new things, or trying to improve things I do. There’s a professor at Stanford named Carol Dweck, and she talks a lot about the growth mindset versus the fixed mindset. And of course, the emphasis is on students.

So you think, I’m good at math, or I’m not good at math. Well, you can always be better at math. It’s not like you’re either this, or you’re that. You can always work towards becoming better at something.

But I think that absolutely applies to adults and all the neurosciences backing this up that if you focus on something, you can improve it. And of course, the neuroplasticity is less as you get older, but it’s still there. So number one is knowing that you can break down all these strengths. And this is what we have this chart for.

Number two is what are the things I’m strong in, and what are the things I want to develop? And who in my ecosystem can help support that? And that’s friends, partners, parents, teachers. Everyone helps you support that.

And then after that it’s what are the practices I’m going to incorporate into my life to get there? And we offer a whole bunch of ideas for all of those.

SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: So I think those are really good, practical steps people can take to develop the aspects in their character they don’t want to. What I’m also wondering though is that if it’s a global movement, are there sensitivities around particular strengths being more associated with particular cultures? Or is this really stuff that really translates and supersedes culture?

TIFFANY SHLAIN: Well, that was what was exciting to me. That was our goal, to have people on the Google Hangout from different cultures to tell us their perspectives on character. And sometimes, it’s very ingrained in religion. Sometimes, it’s not.

But these ideas of character are in every culture. Somebody mentioned this to us when we’re working on the film is that when people talk about country problems or global problems, they don’t often mention the inner work that needs to happen, in order to change the problems. They talk about it on these big, global sweeping statements about what needs to change.

But a lot of it really does come down to personal work, and not in a self help-y way at all, but in a way that if I improve myself, I’m going to better be able to contribute to my family, the community, and the world.

SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: That’s really interesting. Was that the most surprising or unexpected thing that you came across while working on these films and the research? Or was there something else that jumped out too?

TIFFANY SHLAIN: I’ll tell you another aha-moment, woman to woman. In The Making of a Mensch film, in a lot of the work by character, there’s a lot of conversation about humility, which I think is a really important conversation in our culture. I’m in the hub. I’m in San Francisco, where the tech industry, everyone thinks they’re masters of the universe over here.

So the idea of talking about humility, I think, is important. And David Brooks wrote a great book this last year, where he talked a lot about it. And I think about that issue a lot. But as a woman, I wrestle with that, because as a film director. I remember when I was studying film history, there were so many women that were left off of the history books and were not mentioned.

So I feel like on the one hand, it’s my duty to probably be more out there than I’m comfortable with. And so I wrestled with that issue, because I feel like I need to represent. There was a lot of people that marched ahead of me, so I could be a film director.

SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: Mhm.

TIFFANY SHLAIN: And so I sometimes feel like, ugh, I don’t want to be as out there, but I should be as out there. And I ultimately will push myself. So I think that, as a feminist, has been interesting to explore.

SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: Yes. How much of the responsibility is on each of us to carry the ball forward, yeah.

TIFFANY SHLAIN: Exactly. Do you think about that?

SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: All the time. All the time. Yeah.

TIFFANY SHLAIN: Right. I actually– and I mentioned it in the film. I’m so curious what other women that are out there like you, who are vocal, and out in the world, then I think it’s a different issue than for men. I just do. I feel like we’ve had to fight our way in a lot more.

SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: Yeah. And probably character building experience in some ways. Although, sometimes, when people say that, it’s a really bad thing.

TIFFANY SHLAIN: Well, what I’ve learned in my work, I’m 45, and I’ve made 26 films. And the closer I get, as honest as I can be, that will speak to the universal. If I just really talk about things I’m wrestling with, if you’re really honest, then you’re going to speak to the universal and to a lot of people. If you fudge it a little, you won’t speak as much.

All of my work is really– I’m just hoping to start global conversations about important issues. And the films are appetizers, and the discussion afterwards is the main course. So I’m going to provide you with all these tools to stop out of our busy lives and to think deeply about something important that we often don’t make space for.

SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: Yes. It’s definitely a very cool example of that too. Tiffany, thank you again. It’s been such a pleasure talking with you.

TIFFANY SHLAIN: Great to talk to you, and it was so great. I loved your questions.

SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: That was filmmaker, Tiffany Shlain. For more on character day and to see the films and other resources we’ve been talking about, just Google Character Day, and it’ll come right up. Also, if you’re interested in more of the research of Martin Seligman and Carol Dweck, two of the researchers that Tiffany mentioned, we’ve had them as guests on the program actually before, so you can find those podcasts in our archive.

They were number 237 and 283 in our archive, if that helps you find them more quickly. And as always, for more on leadership, visit hbr.org.